Backus, In Search of Effie

Bios & Notes

       According to information given to me by my uncle, my great-grandmother was Effie E. Backus Glandon, who was born October 28, 1862 in Portsmouth, Ohio. She married William Glandon on January 30, 1883.
       I emailed the library in Portsmouth Ohio, in search of Great-grandma Effie’s birth certificate. I wanted to discover the names of her parents. Yet, they wrote me back, saying that due to the Civil War, that county did not keep birth records for the years near her birth, and that I would need to take other measures, to discover more information about this ancestor.
       I then began searching on Ancestry.com and familysearch.org, where I discovered an Effa E Backas. Effa E Backus’ family showed up in the 1870 and 1880 census’. In 1870 her parents were noted as Silas F. and Sarah A. Backus*, and in 1880 the parents were noted as Sylus F. and Sarah A. Backus. In the 1870 census, they are living in the same county and state (Scioto, Ohio), where my Effie was born in 1862. And in the 1880 census, she was living in the same county and state as her future husband’s family (who she would be marrying in 1883), which was West, Montgomery Iowa.
       There are several odd inconsistencies, other than the difference between “Effie E.” and “Effa A.” All of the siblings (other than those who weren’t born in the earlier census) showed up on both census rolls (1870 and 1880). Each family member properly aged 10 years between census’, except for the parents and Effa. Those three family apparently were noted as 2 years older than they each should have been, in 1870. Therefore in 1880, they each only aged 8 years instead of 10! I believe the 1880 census was the correct age for Effa – if she was our Effie.
       Another difference; Effa’s sibling, John. In the June 1870 census his name is John James, and according to the “2/12” by his age, he could have been born March or April of 1870. In the 1880 census, his name is noted as John C. Backus.
       I’ve come across online family trees that note this sibling as John James. Yet, I wonder if it was John C. (as mentioned in the 1880 census) The reason for this curiosity, I discovered a Clyde John Backus (it is not unusual to flip the middle and first names), whose parents were Silas Backus (correct age, yet born in New York instead of Ohio), and Sariah Ann Hudson (correct age, same middle initial, slight deviation on spelling of the same first name.) If this is the same family, we now have Effa’s mother’s maiden name – Hudson. Clyde John Backus was also born in March 1870, which would have been the correct age for John C. PLUS, the 1870 census lists the post office as “Wheelsburg”, and on the Family Data information for Clyde John Backus, he was not only born in the same year as the other John – he was born in Wheelsburg.
       I then came across a 1930 census that shows Chester Glandon living with Clyde Backus. Chester was Effie’s grandson, whom she raised. According to the 1930 census, Chester was 20 years old, and listed as a border in Clyde Backus’ home. The ages and birth states of the Backus in the census match the other Clyde/John James Backus,. Was Backus more than Chester’s landlord? Was he his great-uncle? Brother to Effie?
       The final verdict? I suspect Effie was daughter to Silas and Sarah, but I continue to search. I’ve included Silas and Sarah’s information on the family tree….yet I still need more confirmation.

UPDATE: Information received May 31, 2010 indicates the Sarah was Effie's stepmother, not her birth mother. For more on the update.